About 10 feet from Gilroy’s well-traveled bridge on Santa Teresa
Boulevard sits bird box No. 49. Two weeks ago, the small wooden
structure was home to a mother bluebird and five pastel-blue eggs,
but last week, aside from a 4-inch-high nest snuggled inside, no
trace of the family remained.
About 10 feet from Gilroy’s well-traveled bridge on Santa Teresa Boulevard sits bird box No. 49. Two weeks ago, the small wooden structure was home to a mother bluebird and five pastel-blue eggs, but last week, aside from a 4-inch-high nest snuggled inside, no trace of the family remained.
The likely culprits are people, maybe some kids who saw the box and thought they’d have a little fun, said Norman Watenpaugh, a 75-year-old Gilroy resident who has built and installed bird boxes throughout the city’s parks and open spaces for the past nine years.
Though opening the box to find no birds came as a disappointment to Watenpaugh, he insists the people who want to preserve the region’s birds outnumber those who want to disturb them.
And with hatching season right around the corner, local bird-watchers are out in full force, traversing the area to spot the most beautiful, common and rarest of the winged.
In the Calero and Morgan Hill area, a total of 141 species were spotted last year, according the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.
The most common included the red-winged blackbird at 2,078 reported sightings, followed by the California gull at 1,938 sightings and Brewer’s blackbird at 1,275 sightings. The orange-crowned warbler, sora and American green-winged teal were among the least spotted, at two and three sightings respectively, as were several breeds of owls including the barn owl, Western Northern pygmy owl and great-horned owl, each of which were sighted no more than a dozen times each.
Owls also were among the least-commonly spotted birds last year by the Monterey Peninsula Audubon Society – which includes San Benito County – with five sightings of the great-horned owl and one sighting each of the Northern pygmy owl and spotted owl.
Other rare birds included the white-breasted nuthatch and golden-crowned kinglet, each spotted once. Among the most common were the European starling at 1,152 sightings, the golden-crowned sparrow at 628 sightings, and the yellow-rumped warbler at 554 sightings.
At the Pinnacles National Monument, common birds include the scrub jay, acorn woodpecker, turkey vulture and raven, said Carl Brenner, the park’s supervisor of resource education.
Less common birds there are the California condor, peregrine, prairie falcon and Lawrence’s goldfinch.
While most of the park’s birds are attracted to lush corridors found in gulches and creeks, some birds, such as the bushtit, live in drier areas with more brush, Brenner said.
The park is planning multiple bird walks May 14 in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day, which encourages awareness of bird conservation and natural habitats. While mornings and late evenings are the best times to observe many birds, Brenner said, some emerge in the afternoon.
“The raptors, turkey vultures and condors come out more in the mid-day,” he said. “We think of them as teenagers – they get up late in the day, then just kind of hang out before they go out.”
Gilroy resident Bonnie Bedford-White likely will celebrate the international day, but for her, bird-watching is an everyday activity.
With a family and a full-time business in Santa Clara, Bedford-White said she tries to monitor the nesting creatures on her 2.5-acre property as often as she can, and she also attends bird walks periodically. Her barn-owl box has been successful, she said, and she’s awaiting the arrival of four baby bluebirds any day now.
“The best part of bird-watching for me is that it keeps me in the present tense. There’s no worrying about yesterday or worrying about tomorrow,” she said. “It really gives you pleasure for the moment, and you have to use your senses to watch and listen very carefully. And it’s not just about the birds. It’s about taking in all the beautiful things around you: the wildflowers, the terrific skies, the sunsets.”
Bedford-White is among the roughly 3,000 members of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, which holds regular weekend bird walks and other environmental-awareness activities. Some bird-watchers treat bird-watching like it’s their full-time job, while others do it simply to relax and have fun, said Kim Yuan-Farrell, the society’s programs coordinator.
“Birds are accessible. They’re in your backyard, and they’re out in the wild, so they’re easy for people to enjoy,” she said. “And it’s not a strenuous activity. You can enjoy them from your porch. There’s also people who get involved because they’re interested in conservation and environmental education in general. It doesn’t have to be just specific to birds.”
Part of the society’s mission is to preserve birds that are on the verge of becoming endangered or whose population has declined significantly. The bluebird, wood duck, barn owl and pygmy owl have seen significant decline over the past several years, Watenpaugh said, largely because of human interference.
“The thing with those kinds of birds is they like to nest in old, rotten trees, but people don’t like those trees, mostly for safety reasons,” he said.
Watenpaugh’s bird boxes, numbering about 100 in Christmas Hill Park and another 20 in Las Animas Veterans Park, are his effort to take part in the California Bluebird Recovery Program.
Through the program, volunteers build and erect bird boxes in their neighborhoods and cities and track their activity once a week.
Despite its name, the program is aimed at preserving several varieties of cavity-nesting birds, or birds that nest in the nooks and crannies of dead trees.
Watenpaugh estimated there are about 1,500 bluebirds in Santa Clara County, up from roughly 230 in 1996 when he started hanging the boxes. The number of bluebirds Watenpaugh has documented in Gilroy has grown from 10 to 15 in 1996 to about 70 now.
Bluebirds, like most songbirds, nest through May. It takes about two weeks for the eggs to hatch, and baby birds spend about three weeks in the nest before flying on their own, which takes about a week for them to learn. For the next few months, the birds wander around looking for food. They might end up in the southern part of the state, but Watenpaugh said many don’t migrate in an organized fashion.
Cavity-nesting birds choose their habitat based on several factors, but food and climate play a major role. Bluebirds eat crickets, grasshoppers and insect larvae and tend to nest in low-hanging tree branches that overlook open, grassy areas.
Tree swallows, on the other hand, hunt from the sky as they’re flying, swooping down to capture flying insects such as beetles, horseflies, ants and moths.
The recent rain showers have had a positive impact on the area’s most common songbirds, Watenpaugh said, because the moisture attracts insects for them to munch. And despite the occasional absence of new birds – such as in the case of bird box No. 49 – Watenpaugh remains optimistic.
“If the conditions are right, I find (the population of bluebirds) can almost double each year,” he said. “I think this will be one of our best years yet.”
